She looked a little like an older Patsy Cline barefoot in her pink house dress with tiny white flowers. She invited me in and offered me a cup of coffee. Her husband sat in his recliner and offered the occasional comment usually correcting something she had said… lovingly.

I interviewed them about what they thought about the Dominion power company building a station across the field from where they had lived for over twenty years.

They told me they were against the Union Hill compressor station. They told me they had signed the petitions to stop it. They told me they were afraid of being blown up. They told me they felt ignored by big business and big government.

They also showed me their huge garden in their backyard. They pray over their produce and give most of it away. What they can not give away, they can.

Some think Union Hill, being a predominantly black community, deserves to be in the blast zone of a fiery disaster waiting to happen.

This thinking disappears the good white folks who have done nothing to deserve this abuse of personal property and public safety.

All they have done is choose a simpler way of rural, farm life.

Get involved!

Without you, some of the most beautiful farm country, local history, and great people will be wiped away.

“A nation that sends its women to fight its wars is not worth defending.” Richard Spencer

It is a sad state of affairs when a white supremacist forgets his southern gentleman code about defending white femininity at all costs.

Yesterday afternoon, at Lee Park, Joe Draego struck a white woman in the face in front of a bunch of witnesses leaving a mark.

And, a lot of “men” stood by and did nothing.

In our attempt to save a symbolic statue move (with the threat of law suit, it will never physically be moved), we ignored a white woman being physically assaulted by a black and brown centrist, violent “white” man.

We may lose our cool, but more was lost.

All the work we tried to do about reframing the Lee statue conservative debate is done.

No one really took Wes seriously until defending him became the right, white liberal and moderate black thing to do.

Wes’ embroilment in this twitter controversy emboldened him to back and win the Lee statue symbolic removal from Lee Park.

Bob Fenwick alluded to this when he said his deciding vote was due to the death threats Wes had received.

Jason took a token and made him a local legend or metaphoric martyr or at least a talking point.

Before Jason’s work, we had successfully centered our focus on Mike Signer and Kristen Szakos. We had effectively disappeared Wes into Kristen’s background or as an easy counter point to Mike’s pro-development, conservative agenda.

So, by putting Wes in the forefront as a rainmaker, I feel he has set back white supremacy in Charlottesville by at least ten years.